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Mapping/GIS
Interactive Mapping Server Help

Map Tools

Icon

Tool

Description

Zoom In

Select this tool
and drag a box around your area of interest to zoom most
quickly. For slower zooming simply select the tool and click on
the map.

Zoom Out

Draw a box with this tool to control zoom distance. A tiny box will zoom out a
great distance. A large box will zoom out a small distance. For
slower zooming simply select the tool and click on the map.

Zoom Full

Zooms to the full view of the map.

Zoom Active Layer

Zooms to the full view of the active layer.

Zoom to Last
View

Zooms to the
previous view. Use this instead of the 'Back' button on your
browser. (only goes one level)

Select and then
click on the map to get information about the selected
feature(s) on the active layer. Results will appear below
the map.

Query

This tool opens
a dialogue box at the bottom of the map where you can type
in a query or use the query builder interface. If a single
feature is found a new map will be drawn that is zoomed into
the feature. The tool works on the active layer. To find a
street make the roads layer active, enter the street name
and street type in capital letters in the 'Value' field,
click "Add to Query String", then click "Execute". Click the
"Samples" button to check the format of fields. Complex
expressions can be built with by using various operators
such as "And" and "Or". If multiple features are found, a
list will be returned where features can be selected and
zoomed to.

Find

Click the
button and type in a search string to get a list of all
the features in the active layer that match. To search
for all parcels that located in township 39N range 05W
section 3, you would type "39N05W03". If multiple
features are found, a list will be returned. Click on
the record number at left to zoom to a feature.

Measure

Click
the button and then define the first point by
clicking on the map. As you move the cursor away
from the first point the distance will be displayed
at the top left. Click again to define the second
point. Repeat for each segment. You must wait for
each command to be completed before clicking another
point. Use cues from your browser to monitor this.
Click another tool to end measuring and the Clear
Selection tool to reset the values. Distances are
measured in miles unless you change units (below).

Set
Units

Click the button and select a new distance unit.
This will affect the scalebar, measuring, and
buffering. The default value is miles.

Buffer

Select a feature and then click the buffer
button. Enter a distance for the buffer and a
layer that you want to highlight features from
and then click "Buffer". A new map will be
returned that shows the buffer and features that
fell within it. Buffering may take some time
depending on the layer you choose to highlight
and your buffer distance. Check the "Display
Attributes" checkbox prior to buffering to get a
list of features that fall within the buffer.
This process may take a long time.

Select by Rectangle

Select an object by clicking once or drawing a
rectangle within it. All objects in the active
layer that are touched by the rectangle will be
selected.

Select by Line or Polygon

Select an object by choosing points and then
creating a line or a polygon. All objects in the
active layer touched by the line or polygon will
be selected. Wait for a red dot to appear before
choosing the next point.

Clear Selection

Clears selected features (like the yellow
shading on a selected parcel, or an address dot
and label) and returns a fresh map.

Print

Click this button, enter a title for your map,
and click "Create Print Page". A new browser
window will appear with a map layout. Use the
print button on your browser. You may wish to go
to Page Setup first to specify landscape
orientation.

You can choose from many available map "layers", to see just the combination of map information that you want to see. There is a default configuration, but you can change it. At large scales (Zoomed–In), there are locations where the map can be very busy, such as the perimeter of Moscow. In order to see some layers better, you can always turn other layers off by clicking in the square box next to the layer name in the Layers list at the right section of the screen. You can also turn layers on by clicking this box. A check in the box means the layer will be visible, empty means that layer will not be visible. To make changes effective, click the Refresh button at the bottom of the Layers list.

Just as the square box makes the layer visible, the round box makes it the "active" layer. Most of the tools work on the "active" layer only. To make a layer active, click on the round dot next to it. Active = Inactive = Only one layer can be active at a time. The white box below the map will acknowledge the layer that you have selected to be active.

A Geographic Information System stores information about every feature on the map (such as the name of a road or stream). This can easily be obtained by clicking on that feature. Zoom to a scale where the feature is visible on the screen. Click the round button to make that layer active. Select the identify tool from the upper left corner of the screen. Click on the feature that you would like to identify. A data window will pop up with all the available information associated with that feature.